Alieksandrov M. Mechanisms of structural and radiation functionalization of polymer composites with multiwall carbon nanotubes.

Polymer composites are often used in biotechnology, pharmacology, media and other fields, due to the fact that these materials have unique conductive, dielectric, optical, mechanical properties. Methods for improving these properties, namely structural and radiation functionalization, also play an important role, although these methods have not been sufficiently studied to date. An important direction in the creation of the composite is the choice of filler, an important place among which is occupied by carbon nanotubes, including multiwall. Although modifiers significantly affect the structural features of polymer matrices and mechanisms of many physical properties, including electrically conductive, dielectric, optical and mechanical, but they are given less attention, especially linear conjugate systems. The system undergoes significant changes in structure and morphology not only after structural functionalization, but also after radiation functionalization, for example, after high-energy electron irradiation with different doses of absorption. Such functionalization first of all influences change of structure of the polymers which are subject to crosslinking. Structural and radiation functionalization are the main reasons why conjugation between macromolecules and nanostructured fillers and modifiers can be expected. It is expected that the formation of conjugates will in turn affect the properties of polymer composites.